Anakin goes to Hogwarts
by RSegovia
Summary: After saving Luke on the Death Star, Anakin follows Palpatine down the reactor shaft and finds himself in a different galaxy, on a very primitive and strange planet. He learns different uses of the Force and helps another Chosen One achieve his destiny.
1. The Jedi Returns

Anakin goes to Hogwarts

Chapter 1: The Jedi Returns

"Father!" cried Luke in agony as the Emperor's Force Lightning ate at him and made him convulse on the floor. Darth Vader looked on, his mask as impassive and relentless as always, but inside the mask a man struggled to be free of the pain that had held him captive for over twenty years.

"Help me!" Vader had been alone for so long, but now his son was here-his beautiful son who looked so much like the young Anakin Skywalker, and whose face shone with the compassion and love Vader had forsaken long ago.

"Please!" When the former Anakin Skywalker looked at that face, suddenly he couldn't see any of himself in it. Suddenly it was _her_ face... _her_ image before him, writhing on the floor before the hideous embodiment of hate. Pleading for Anakin to save her. _But that's all I wanted to do, Padme_, he thought sadly. _I just wanted to save you. How did it all go so wrong?_ He had failed her then. The power of the Dark Side had not been able to save his Padme, and now she was gone, beyond all hope of rescue, and he was a slave again, bound to follow the whims of another cruel master, to serve the Darkness that had ripped his beloved from his side.

No more. With a swift movement, Anakin lunged forward and picked up the Emperor as easily as he might have picked up a young child. _As I might have done if I had the chance to be a true father to Luke,_ he thought. The Emperor was still cackling madly with delight at torturing Luke, but now Anakin was holding the frail old man over the reactor shaft, standing right against the railing, and now Anakin simply dropped him in. It was a simple act, and the Force was with him. The Force filled him with love now, and he marvelled to see how the Darkness was driven back before the bright power of the Light. He had been so afraid to turn back toward the Light. _It is too late for me,_ he had thought, and resigned himself to follow the Dark path forever, but Luke had been right about him. Strangely, he could see Luke in his mind, standing with Princess Leia on a wooden platform in the light of flickering torches in a friendly forest.

_"There is good in him," Luke told her._ Anakin saw their entire conversation in one moment. _"The Force is strong in my family," Luke said simply. "My father has it, I have it, and my sister has it." _With so much good in his children, there had to be goodness in Anakin. It was never too late to turn back, because the Light was stronger than the Dark in the end. "I am a Jedi," Luke had said, standing defiantly before the Emperor, refusing to use the Dark Side to kill in anger, _and so am I!_ cried Anakin in his mind

As Palpatine started to fall downward, however, he let loose a stream of Force Lightning at Anakin, electrocuting him as he had done to Luke, and frying the circuits of Anakin's respirator. His artificial limbs were also damaged by the current, and Anakin leaned heavily against the railing, turning away from the falling Sith. He could see Luke getting up, already recovering from the Emperor's assault, still bright with the Light side of the Force.

"Father," said Luke lovingly, starting toward the dark figure who was now gasping for breath. But their reconciliation was not to be. Palpatine, falling through the reactor shaft, had somehow summoned enough energy in the Force to crack the railing Anakin leaned on. He felt himself fall helplessly downward. Luke tried to reach him, but the Emperor's rage was powerful, and Anakin fell after him.

Palpatine had never been so consumed with hatred. In his long life of serving the Dark Side, how could he now allow the Light to triumph? Two recklessly naive boys from a backward desert planet were no match for him! He focused all his energy into pulling Vader towards himself, so much that he felt his own descent slow down. He called out to the Dark Side, somehow connecting with the universe in a way that he never had before. He felt the Darkness reach out to him, calling him to another place and time where its hold was growing stronger, and he knew the Dark Side wanted him there...

As Anakin fell, he saw the glowing yellow eyes of the Emperor below him. The Emperor seemed to be falling slowly, and now his entire body was glowing. A sickly sort of force field seemed to emanate from his body, warping his shape and the shapes of the station behind him. Something about the sickly glow seemed _wrong_ to Anakin, as if the very fabric of reality was being torn apart. Suddenly, the Emperor disappeared, but the sickly force field remained, and Anakin was falling toward it. Helpless to avoid his fate, Anakin called out to Luke with his mind. _"I love you, my son." _Then he was gone.


	2. A Stranger Arrives

Anakin goes to Hogwarts

Chapter 2: A Stranger Arrives

Hagrid was spreading fertilizer on his pumpkin patch when a few nearby thestrals began to whinny and squawk. He looked over in concern and followed their agitated gaze skyward. Something was falling from the sky. As it descended, he could see that it was black and seemed to be flapping helplessly. "Go, boys," he shouted at the thestrals. "Tha' c'd be one o' yer brothers. 'E mighta been 'it by one o' those muggle flyin' machines. Quick, go catch 'im."

Three of the thestrals ran toward Hogwarts and launched themselves into the air. They reached the falling figure about thirty meters over the school and one of them flew under it. For a few meters they fell together, but the other two thestrals joined in support, spreading and straining their wings, and they all managed to land unharmed at the edge of the Quidditch pitch. Hagrid ran toward them as they reached the ground running, and lifted the limp figure off of the thestrals as soon as they stopped. It was not, he discovered immediately, an injured thestral, but it seemed to be human in shape. The flapping he had seen was simply the long black cloak it was wearing. Hagrid was sure the being was alive, because a strange gasping sound was coming from its head, which was covered by a black shiny helmet of some kind. Its loud breathing was growing weaker by the second, so Hagrid carried it quickly up to the castle and made his way to the infirmary wing.

"Poppy!" he called gruffly, "Ah need yer help, quick as yeh can!"

Madame Pomfrey hurried out of her office and looked immediately for blood or another black eye, but saw the enormous gatekeeper uninjured and holding a black-clad human-shaped figure that seemed to be gasping for breath, but whose face was covered by a grotesque and shiny skull-like mask.

"Who is that, Hagrid?" she demanded, leading the half-giant to an open bed. Hagrid gently laid his burden on it and stepped back.

"Ah dunno," he replied helplessly. "He fell outer the sky, and the thestrals caught 'im. 'E can' breathe proper, and 'e don' say nought, so I brung 'im 'ere."

The nurse clucked, and ran her fingers over the strange black mask, trying to find a way to remove it. WIth an impatient huff, she stood up and waved her wand over the strange figure to assess his (she assumed by the figure's stature that it must by a man, if it was indeed human) vital signs and injuries.

"Merlin's gout!" she exclaimed after running several tests. "Both arms and legs have been severed and replaced by artificial ones, and his lungs and most of his skin have been severely burned. This mask-helmet is all that keeps him alive. Thank Circe I didn't take it off." She continued to examine the man's lungs. "How curious," she commented abstractly. "The breathing mask and artificial limbs seem to be some kind of Muggle machinery, but he's not a Muggle. His magical aura is very powerful, but weakened significantly by his injuries. In fact, if I don't Heal his lungs immediately, he'll die within twenty minutes, I should say. Oh, dear," she began summoning various jars and bottles from her medicine cabinets, "I may have to actually re-grow them. The muscles have atrophied from years of disuse." She quickly cast a Breathing charm on the man to replace the task of his mask, and removed the front of it after careful inspection. Hagrid saw a bald, pasty head covered with scars, and winced.

"Hagrid, would you fire-call Headmaster Dumbledore?" she asked as she worked on extracting the tubing from the mysterious man's lungs. "He'll want to speak to this man if I can get him conscious. Tell him everything."

Hagrid lumbered over to the fireplace, got down on his knees, and floo-called the Headmaster's office. He found Professor Dumbledore working to repair his magical instruments, which had somehow all become smashed. He relayed the message, gasping, and Dumbledore promised to come at once. When he arrived, he performed many of the same tests that Madame Pomfrey had, and seemed especially interested in the strange man's artificial arms and legs. "Most ingenious," he said. "I have tried to keep an eye on the latest muggle inventions, but nothing like these has been mentioned in any of the technology journals to which I subscribe. You say he fell from directly above the school? How curious."

The man was still unconscious, so Madame Pomfrey used a tube-shaped device to deliver a muscle-restoring and strengthening potion to his stomach. "His aura is improving steadily," she commented with satisfaction. She spread another potion on his skin, whose burns and scars started to heal before Hagrid's eyes. When she had finished with the man's head, he was still bald and pale, but looked much younger and healthier. As the healing potion took effect, his breathing became less labored, and he regained some color in his cheeks. Madame Pomfrey then set to removing his clothing with clinical detachment. "He'll be breathing fine in a few more minutes," she said. "Hagrid, help me get this armor off."


	3. Waking Up in Heaven

Anakin goes to Hogwarts

Chapter 3: Waking Up In Heaven

He was floating, a sensation of complete well-being wrapped around him like a cloud. I must be dead. That was the only way to explain why he was free of the pain that had tormented him for so long, yet he felt no sluggishness, as he would if he had been drugged. The only pain he felt was the phantom pain of his missing limbs, which was strange. Why were they still missing if he was dead? Still, he felt so relaxed that he sighed in contentment.

With a gasp, he realized that the biggest change of all had escaped his notice: He was breathing! The natural flow of air was so normal, so easy, that it was as if he had never worn that hideous mask, never been burned in a lava pit, never fought to the death with his best friend...The taste of fresh, unprocessed air and the feel of wind rushing into his lungs was so heady that he simply opened his mouth and let it rush in, filling his nose and throat, opening his ear canals and turning the delicious breaths into a yawn. The feel of a yawn was overpowering, something he had not experienced in so long that he could only open his jaw as wide as it would go and give into the sensation.

As he savored the air, he smelled something that was certainly medicinal. He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a bed, surrounded by white curtains. Now certain that he was alive, he tried to move, and found to his shock that his prosthetic arms and legs had been removed! Who would dare-?

The good feelings wrapped around him again, soothing his anger before it could rise, and he lay back, closed his eyes, and stretched out with the Force.

The planet felt unfamiliar, yet the place more like home than anywhere he had lived since leaving his mother on Tatooine. It certainly wasn't a desert world, though. He sensed life teeming around him, including plants, animals, and many presences who were strong in the Force. He had not felt such a concentration of the Light side of the Force since the Jedi Temple before the Clone Wars. And strangely enough, it embraced him now as it never completely had then.

Anakin was overwhelmed by emotion as he realized that even after decades of following the Emperor and committing terrible crimes against everything he knew to be right, he had never been more firmly on the side of Light than he was now. Perhaps that's what it took for me to become a true Jedi, he pondered. I had to pass through the darkness to find the Light. A sound that was half chuckle and half groan escaped his lips.

Something rustled and Anakin felt a presence moving toward him. A strong presence, female, with the unmistakable feel of a Healer. She pulled the curtain aside and said something. he couldn't understand her words, but knew it was a question about his health. She seemed to be a middle-aged human, and wore a pointed white hat and a white robe. He smiled at her.

"Thank you for healing me," he said, his eyes filling with tears. He could tell that she didn't understand, so he reached out and touched her mind with the Force, conveying the meaning of his statement. "Thank you."

Taken aback, she stared at him. Then she smiled and uttered something polite in response, which he immediately filed away for the future, remembering one of Obi-Wan's admonitions from his youth: "Manners, not profanities, are the first thing to learn in any language, Anakin."

_I wish you could see me now, Master. I'm finally following your advice._

The Healer turned away and went to a nearby fireplace, where she tossed something in the fire which made it flare and turn green. Anakin's curiosity turned to shock when she knelt down and stuck her head in the flames!

"Albus!" The Headmaster looked up as Poppy Pomfrey's head appeared in his fireplace.

"Ah, the mystery patient is awake, I presume. How is he feeling?"

"He seems to be in a good mood, but I'm afraid he doesn't speak English," the witch replied. "Could you come up and try talking to him? I'd like to ask him about re-growing his limbs, and I think that will require a more sophisticated form of communication than we have been using."

"I'll be right there, Poppy," he said. Stepping through the Floo, he brushed off his long purple robes and took stock of the mysterious patient. He was completely bald and very pale, and seemed to be about fifty years old, with light blue eyes that stared at Albus and then at the fireplace in awe.

"Hello, I'm Albus Dumbledore," he said, gesturing to himself, and then to Poppy. "Poppy Pomfrey," he said, repeated both names while gesturing, and then waved his hand toward the stranger questioningly.

The man seemed to ponder for a few seconds, and then smiled. "Anakin Skywalker", he said feelingly, as if he hadn't used the name in a long time.


	4. Language, Magic, and Force

Anakin goes to Hogwarts

Chapter 4: Language, Magic, and Force

Poppy Pomfrey had seen a lot of strange things. Compared to all the maladies and injuries a school of young wizards could come up with even in a week, the afflictions of Anakin Skywalker were fairly tame, if a bit mysterious. The man himself was like no one she had ever met before, however. The way he had impressed his feeling of pure gratitude into her mind was still resonating in her several minutes later as she worked in her lab. She was sculpting a set of clay arms and legs, which would provide the framework in which Skele-gro, muscle rebuilding potion, blood replenisher, and other healing and body-rebuilding mixtures could work and restore the stranger's limbs.

Albus and Mr. Skywalker were still using mainly sign language, pointing at this or that and saying the names of ordinary objects. The stranger seemed to be in good humor, and was certainly very intelligent. The biggest breakthrough had come when Skywalker looked pointedly at Albus' wand, and Albus showed him what it was by summoning a chair to sit in. In response, Skywalker narrowed his eyes and levitated the chair with Albus in it.

Albus thought his new friend might be ready for more magic. The headmaster had already demonstrated simple transfiguration by turning the bed into a comfortable chair, and used a few charms to help the man sit up and give him some food and drink. Now he cast the temporary translation charm, which would allow him to understand and speak Anakin's language, but wouldn't affect the other man, who was looking at the Elder wand curiously.

"That stick seems to be alive," Anakin said when Albus finished the incantation.

"Wands do have a form of sentience, especially this one," Albus said thoughtfully, wondering how the limbless man could tell. Anakin looked startled.

"You speak Basic!" Albus shook his head.

"I'm using a translation charm," he explained. It will allow me to understand you and make myself understood for about a day, but then it will fade. Hopefully I can teach it to you by then, so you can speak to the others around you."

"How does that- how does all this work?" Anakin said, glancing at the transfigured chair and at the fireplace in trepidation. "How did the Healer cure my injuries?"

"Don't you know about magic? How did you levitate my chair, if not by the same means? Poppy told me you transmitted your feeling of thanks to her directly, and I assumed you used some form of mental magic."

Anakin shook his head. "I used the Force," he said simply. "Some people call it magic, and call the people who use it wizards, but it's really just an energy field that surrounds everything in the universe."

Albus nodded. "But I really am a wizard, and what we do here truly is magic." Anakin looked amazed.

"What planet am I on?" he asked, and it was Albus' turn to be shocked.

"What planet?" he repeated, then answered, "We call this planet Earth. What... planet are you from?" he asked. Anakin smiled.

"Originally I'm from Tattooine, but I've lived on Coruscant most of my life, or in space on ships and space stations. Haven't you ever been off-world?" he asked, seeing Albus' stunned look.

"No I haven't, I'm afraid. We don't have many spaceships here on Earth, and only a few people have actually used them. I don't think anyone from this planet has ever travelled farther than the moon."

Anakin's face fell. "Do you have a chart of the galaxy? Perhaps I could tell where I am from that and find a way to contact someone."

"I'll call our Astronomy professor. If anyone can help you figure out where you are, it would be her." Albus stood and went to the fireplace to activate the Floo. "Professor Sinistra's office," he said, and put his head in the fire.

Aurora Sinistra was mostly nocturnal, so he had to call a few times before she came out of her private rooms in a bathrobe. She looked startled when he told her about Anakin, and said she would come as soon as she could with her charts. Albus sat back in his chair and turned back to his friend, who seemed fascinated by the Floo again.

"She might take a while to get here. She sleeps during the day so she can teach and study the stars at night." Albus studied the other man, seeing sadness and regret in his eyes. "You must be a long way from home. Do you have family you left behind?" Anakin looked down.

"I have a son, and a daughter. They don't know me very well- I haven't been a very good father. My son reached out to me recently and changed my life, but I don't even know if he's alright. We were in the middle of a war when I left. I thought I was dying but somehow I came here instead. I hope he got out to safety."

Albus smiled kindly. "I'll try to help you find them again."

They both looked up as Poppy came into the room, with some rough clay shapes and a line of potions on a trolley. "Have you told him about the regrowing process yet, Headmaster?"

"Not yet, he told her. Turning back to Anakin, he focused speaking the other man's language. "She wants to re-grow your arms and legs."


	5. Out on a Limb

Chapter 5: Out On A Limb

Anakin was bewildered. This place, these people, all this magic! When the Healer, Poppy, returned with some lumpy clay shapes that looked vaguely like arms and legs on a cart with some strange looking bottles, he at first thought she meant to measure him for new prosthetics, and he wondered briefly if there were any droids on this planet. Any Healer he'd ever met had an army of droids to carry things and do the routine or technical work. Most med centers were staffed mainly by droids, but Anakin hadn't seen any here since he awoke.

Then the old man named Albus Dumbledore, who had the unmistakeable presence of a Jedi Master, turned to him and said, "She wants to re-grow your arms and legs," and Anakin couldn't speak. He hadn't even considered that possibility, even after the other marvels he had seen, and his throat grew tight with emotion. After everything he had gone through, was it possible that he could become whole again? Could he truly begin his life anew, and become the person he was meant to be?

"We don't have to do that if you don't want to," said Master Dumbledore. "The process is long and painful, and it is possible to make you magical limbs, though they tend to have a mind of their own..." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I do think regrowing will be best in the long run, but only if you consent."

"I do!" shouted Anakin, finally recovering his faculties. "I do want to regrow my limbs. I was just- "

"Speechless," finished Albus Dumbledore with a smile. "I sometimes forget what it must be like for someone new to this world, even with the first year students coming every year."

"This is a school?" Anakin asked, and Albus nodded. Anakin thought that made sense. Only a school for people strong in the Force, or this strange magic, could have such a powerful, uplifting feeling. Albus waved his living stick again and turned Anakin's chair back into a bed, then helped the Healer arrange the clay limbs in place.

"Are they the right length and size?" asked Albus. "She modeled them after your metal ones."

"The arms should be the same as before, but the legs should be shorter. I wasn't given a choice about it at the time, but I was given extra long prostheses to make me taller."

Once they had adjusted and attached the clay limbs, the Healer did something with her stick that made the clay feel warm, and then gave him a vial of some liquid that smelled awful. He looked at the writhing green mess, hesitating.

"You need to drink all these potions now for your limbs to grow back," said Albus. Anakin took the vial and gulped it down, grimacing at the taste. Then he drank the rest of them, as Albus told him what they did: growing new bones, muscles and tendons, regenerating nerves and blood vessels, replacing the clay with layers of fat and skin tissue, replenishing his blood supply so the potions could circulate, and some that were to encourage healthy growth and condition his muscles for use, which would take effect later. He marvelled at the trust he felt for these people so soon after meeting them, but their presences in the Force were so pure that he knew they wanted to help him.

A few minutes after drinking the potions, the pain took over. It was excruciating, after feeling relief for a short time, to experience this terrible pain again, but he would bear it. Albus and Poppy held him down while he thrashed and screamed. The pain was so great that he couldn't speak, but he used the Force to impress his gratitude on them again, When the pain became manageable, they held his hands and he smiled when he realized he could feel their warmth.

Poppy spoke, and Albus translated, telling him it would take a few days before his limbs would be fully healed, and he would have to stay in bed until then.

"Tell me more about this planet," he said when he could speak again. Poppy had bustled away, needing to rest from her healing efforts.

Albus told him about muggles, people who couldn't use magic, and how the wizards had their own hidden world. Wizards used magic as a daily convenience, and muggles used machines.

"I'm know a lot about machines," Anakin told him. "What types of transport do they use?"

Anakin's dismay grew as Albus described trains, cars, and airplanes. No antigrav or hovercars? They were truly primitive here.

"What about their spaceships?" Albus told him about rockets that went straight up and traveled to the moon, or dropped off satellites, or took supplies and personnel to what sounded like a very primitive space station.

"So nobody from Earth has ever traveled to another planet?"

"I'm afraid-" Albus began.

"That's not true," said a new voice, and both men looked up to see a woman carrying a large bundle of papers entering the room. She was fairly tall with straight brown hair, and gave the impression that she was on a very important mission.

"Hello, Mr. Skywalker," she said briskly, setting her papers down on the next bed. She came closer and gripped his hand as it lay on the bed. "I'm Aurora Sinistra, and while the Headmaster is right about the muggles, he isn't entirely correct." She looked at Albus apologetically. "There is one person from Earth who has traveled further into space. _I_ have been to several other planets in my magical spaceship."

* * *

Hah! bet you didn't expect that. I actually have been imagining how some Harry Potter character might create a spaceship with magic for a long time. Almost wrote one about Harry doing it, but I thought it would be more interesting to bring a lesser-known character forward. We really know next to nothing about Professor Sinistra except that she teaches at night, but according to HP Lexicon her first name is Aurora, which means "dawn" and her last name means "left handed", so I also made her a lefty. I decided to make her a pretty big character in this story, and maybe a love interest for Anakin, but not for a long time. Please tell me if she's turning into a Mary Sue; I'll try to avoid that at all costs. I'm also writing another short story about how she came to make a magical spaceship that I'll post separately, called Sinistra's Spaceship. Keep reviewing!


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